It was possible to hold a referendum in the USSR to clarify the majority opinion during the survey on any significant issue. At the same time, it could be carried out both at the initiative of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, and at the request of any of the Union republics. For the first time in the Soviet constitution, such a norm appeared in 1936, but during the entire existence of the USSR it was addressed only once. It was 1991, when it was necessary to find out the future of the Soviet Union itself.
What led to the referendum?
All-Union referendum in the USSR was announced on March 17, 1991. Its main goal was to discuss whether the USSR should be preserved as an updated federation, which would include equal and sovereign republics.
The need to hold a referendum in the USSR appeared at the height of perestroika, when the country found itself in a difficult economic situation, and there was also a serious political crisis. The Communist Party, which has been in power unchanged for 70 years, has demonstrated that it has outlived itself and has not been allowed to allow new political forces.
As a result, in December 1990, the Fourth Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR held a roll-call vote to consolidate the position on the need to preserve the Soviet Union. It was separately noted that it should ensure the rights and freedoms of a person of any nationality in full.
In order to finally consolidate this decision, it was decided to hold a referendum. Five questions of the 1991 referendum were submitted to it.
Do you consider it necessary to preserve the USSR as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which human rights and freedoms of any nationality will be fully guaranteed?
Do you consider it necessary to preserve the USSR as a single state?
Do you consider it necessary to preserve the socialist system in the USSR?
Do you consider it necessary to preserve the Soviet Union in the renewed Union ?
Do you consider it necessary to guarantee a renewed Union of human rights and freedoms of any nationality?
Each of them could be answered in monosyllables: yes or no. At the same time, as many researchers note, no legal consequences in the event of the adoption of a decision were agreed in advance. Therefore, initially, many had serious doubts about how legitimate this referendum on preserving the USSR would be.
Organization Issues
Almost on the same day, the president began organizing the first and last referendum in the USSR. At that time it was Mikhail Gorbachev. At his request, the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR adopted two decisions. One was devoted to a referendum on the issue of private ownership of land, and the second to the preservation of the Soviet Union.
Most deputies supported both decisions. For example, the first was supported by 1553 people, and the second - 1677 deputies. At the same time, the number of those who voted against or abstained did not exceed one hundred people.
However, as a result of the referendum, only one was held. The Chairman of the Legislative Committee in the Supreme Council, who was Yuri Kalmykov, announced that the president considered it premature to hold a referendum on private property, so it was decided to refuse it. But the second decree immediately began to implement.
Congress Decision
The result was a decision of the Congress on holding an all-union referendum. The Supreme Council was entrusted with determining the date and doing everything for its organization. The decision was adopted on December 24. This became the key law of the USSR on the referendum.
Three days later, a law on popular vote was passed. According to one of his articles, only deputies could appoint him.
The reaction of the Union republics
USSR President Gorbachev supported the referendum, speaking out so that it would be held in a regime of openness and publicity. But in the Union republics, this proposal was reacted differently.
Supported the referendum in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Special republican commissions were immediately created there, which took up the formation of precincts and districts, and also began to take all necessary measures to prepare and organize a full-fledged vote.
In the RSFSR, a referendum was decided on March 17. It was Sunday, so the participation of the maximum possible number of citizens was expected. Also on this day, only in the RSFSR, it was decided to hold another referendum on the introduction of the presidency in the republic, already at that time it was obvious that Boris Yeltsin was applying for this position, who at that time headed the presidium of the Supreme Council of the republic.
On the territory of the RSFSR, more than 75% of residents took part in a nationwide poll, more than 71% of them supported the introduction of the presidency in the republic. In less than three months, Boris Yeltsin became the first and only president of the RSFSR.
People against
Many Soviet republics spoke out against the referendum on the preservation of the USSR. The central authorities accused them of violating the constitution, as well as the basic laws of the Soviet Union. It turned out that local authorities actually blocked the decision of the people's deputies.
Thus, to one degree or another, they prevented the holding of a referendum in Lithuania, Latvia, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, and Estonia. Central commissions were not created there, but voting in most of these territories nevertheless took place.
At the same time, in Armenia, for example, the authorities declared their independence, therefore, they considered that it was not necessary to hold a referendum. He was boycotted in Georgia by calling his own republican referendum, on which it was planned to resolve the issue of restoring independence on the basis of an act adopted in May 1918. Almost 91% of voters voted in this referendum, more than 99% of them supported restoration of sovereignty.
Such decisions often led to escalation of conflicts. For example, the leaders of the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia personally addressed the President of the USSR Gorbachev with a request to withdraw the Georgian military from the territory of South Ossetia, introduce a state of emergency on the territory, and ensure the law and order by the forces of the Soviet police.
It turned out that the referendum, which was banned in Georgia, was held in South Ossetia, which was actually part of this republic. Georgian troops reacted by force. Armed forces stormed Tskhinvali.
In Latvia, voting was also boycotted. Many called it a referendum on the collapse of the USSR. In Lithuania, as in Georgia, a survey was conducted on the independence of the republic. At the same time, local authorities blocked those wishing to participate in the All-Union referendum; voting was organized only in a few polling stations, which were intensely controlled by the security forces.
A referendum boycott was also announced in Moldova; it was supported only in Transnistria and Gagauzia. In both of these republics, the vast majority of citizens supported the preservation of the Soviet Union. In Chisinau itself, the opportunity to vote was only in the territories of military units, which were directly subordinate to the Ministry of Defense.
In Estonia, the referendum boycott was abandoned in Tallinn and the northeastern regions of the republic, where many Russians historically lived. The authorities did not interfere with them and organized a full-fledged vote.
At the same time, a referendum on independence was held in the Republic of Estonia itself, in which only the so-called successive citizens had the right to take part, mainly Estonians by nationality. Almost 78% of them supported independence from the Soviet Union.
Summary
Nevertheless, on the majority of the USSR on March 17, 1991, a referendum took place. If we talk about the turnout, then out of 185.5 million people who lived in the territories where the referendum was supported by local authorities, 148.5 million exercised their right to vote. A total of 20% of the inhabitants of the USSR were cut off from participating in the popular poll, as they ended up on the territory of the republics that spoke out against this vote.
Of those who came to polling stations and filled out a ballot for voting in a referendum in the USSR, 76.4% of the citizens spoke in favor of maintaining the Soviet Union in an updated form, in absolute numbers - 113.5 million people.
Of all the regions of the RSFSR, only one spoke out against the preservation of the USSR. This was the Sverdlovsk region, in which only 49.33% gave the answer “yes” to the referendum without gaining the necessary half of the votes. The lowest result in the Soviet Union was demonstrated in Sverdlovsk itself, where only 34.1% of the citizens who came to the polls supported the renewed Soviet state. Rather low figures were also observed in Moscow and Leningrad, in two capitals only about half of the population supported the Soviet state.
If we summarize the results of the referendum on the USSR in the republics, then more than 90% of the population supported the USSR in North Ossetia, Tuva, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Karakalpak USSR.
More than 80% of the votes in favor were cast in Buryatia, Dagestan, Bashkiria, Kalmykia, Mordovia, Tatarstan, Chuvashia, Belarus, and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. More than 70% of the inhabitants supported the referendum on the USSR in the RSFSR (71.3%), Kabardino-Balkaria, Karelia, Komi, Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Udmurtia, Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Yakutia.
The Ukrainian SSR showed the lowest result among those who voted, 70.2% of citizens supported it.
Referendum results
Preliminary results were announced on March 21. Even then, it was obvious that two-thirds of the voters voted in favor of preserving the Soviet Union, and then the figures were only specified.
Separately, it is worth noting that in some republics that did not support the referendum, an opportunity was given for those wishing to vote, mainly it was the Russian-speaking population. Thus, about two million people managed, despite various difficulties, to cast their votes in Lithuania, Georgia, Moldova, Estonia, Armenia and Latvia.
Based on the results of the vote, the Supreme Council henceforth decided to be guided in its work exclusively by this decision of the people, proceeding from the fact that it is final and valid throughout the USSR, without exception. It was recommended to all interested parties and authorities to more energetically complete the work on the Union Treaty, the signing of which should have been organized as soon as possible. At the same time, the need was noted to expedite the development of a new draft of the Soviet constitution.
Separately, it was clarified that it was necessary to carry out full-scale work to the committee responsible for constitutional oversight in order to assess how the highest state acts operating in the country correspond to the observance of all USSR citizens without exception.
Soon, the representatives of this committee made an official statement in which they noted that any acts of the highest bodies of state power that directly or gradually prevented the holding of this referendum are contrary to the constitution, are illegal, undermining the foundations of the political system.
An extraordinary Congress of the People’s Council of Deputies was convened urgently, one of the main decisions of which was the adoption of a resolution on the procedure for signing the Union Treaty. It was assumed that he would be concluded between all Union republics. Official statements emphasized that the results of the referendum expressed the will and desire of the Soviet people to save the state, so the RSFSR expressed its determination to sign the Union Treaty in the near future.
Impending consequences
Due to the fact that voting was not properly organized in all republics, the question arose repeatedly whether there was a referendum in the USSR. Despite everything, focusing on the number of participants, it is necessary to recognize the referendum as valid, even taking into account the problems with its holding that arose in several republics at once.
Based on its results, the central authorities began to prepare a draft to conclude an agreement on the union of sovereign republics. Its signing was officially scheduled for August 20.
But, as you know, he was not destined to take place. A few days before that date, the State Committee of Emergency, which went down in history as the State Emergency Committee, made a failed attempt to seize power and forcibly remove Mikhail Gorbachev from office. A state of emergency in the country was declared on August 18, the political crisis in the country continued until the 21st, until it was possible to break the resistance of the GKChP members, its most active participants were arrested. Thus, the signing of the Union Treaty was disrupted.
Union agreement
By the autumn of 1991, a new draft of the Union Treaty had been prepared, over which the same working group worked. It was assumed that the participants will enter it as independent states united in a federation. The preliminary signing of this agreement was officially announced on December 9th.
But he was not destined to take place. On the eve of December 8, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus announced that negotiations had reached an impasse, and that the process of secession of republics from the USSR should be recognized as a fact, therefore it is urgent to form the Commonwealth of Independent States. So there was a union, better known as the CIS. This intergovernmental organization, which at the same time did not officially have the status of a state, was born as a result of the signing of the Bialowieza Agreement. It got its name because of the place where it was concluded - Belovezhskaya Pushcha on the territory of Belarus.
Ukraine, Belarus and Russia became the first countries that entered the CIS. Then other union republics joined them. Before the onset of the new 1992 session of the Council of the Republics adopted a declaration that officially approved the termination of the USSR as a state.
Interestingly, on March 17, 1992, ex-people's deputies initiated the anniversary of the referendum, for which there was even a proposal to meet in Moscow for another congress of people's deputies. But due to the fact that by the decision of the Supreme Council the activity of deputies was terminated, they were forbidden to develop or adopt any legislative acts. Their attempts to resume work were recognized as the reanimation of the activities of the organs of the former USSR, and therefore a direct assault on the sovereignty of a new state - Russia, which had already declared itself an independent federation. The USSR officially ceased to exist, all attempts to return to its public and state institutions failed.
How was the referendum evaluated?
The referendum was given a lot of political assessments. Some of them became possible to formulate only after a certain time. For example, in 1996, deputies of the federal parliament began to rely on the provision that a decision adopted in 1991 at a referendum is binding and final throughout the USSR. To cancel it seems possible, according to existing laws, only after a new referendum. Therefore, it was decided that the referendum held had legal force for Russia, which should now try to maintain the safety of the Soviet Union. It was separately noted that no other question was asked about the existence of the USSR, which means that these results are legitimate and have legal force.
In particular, the resolution adopted by the deputies noted that the officials in the RSFSR who prepared, signed and, in the end, ratified the decision to cease the existence of the USSR, rudely violated the will of the majority of the country's inhabitants, which was formally true.
In this regard, the State Duma, relying on the decision of the majority of citizens, announced that the decision of the Supreme Council on the denunciation of the treaty on the formation of the USSR was losing all legal force.
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